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80 year old man arrested because of Tshirt

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 23:10:30 GMT

clipped by: kkcapricorn
clipper's remarks:

Police said that Don Zirkel, of Bethpage, was disturbing shoppers at the Lake Grove mall with his T-shirt

upsetting? a Tshirt? are we supposed to pretend this isn't happening?

An 80-year-old church deacon was removed from the Smith Haven Mall yesterday in a wheelchair and arrested by police for refusing to remove a T-shirt protesting the Iraq War.

Zirkel, a deacon at Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal in Wyandanch, said his shirt had the death tolls of American military personnel and Iraqis - 4,000 and 1 million - and the words "Dead" and "Enough." The shirt also has three blotches resembling blood splatters.

Zirkel said he was sitting in the food court drinking coffee with his wife Marie, 77, and several others when police and mall security officers approached and demanded they remove their anti-war T-shirts

"They forcibly picked me up and put me in the wheelchair," said Zirkel

charged with criminal trespassing and resisting arrest

Activists with dueling opinions had gathered to support and oppose America's five-year campaign.

Tags: 80 yr. old, arrest, tshirt, anti-war

Nature's Best

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 20:41:17 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman

Clip Source: www.mnh.si.edu

Reading Fiction Improves Social Abilities

Sun, 30 Mar 2008 18:49:19 GMT

clipped by: Sheroug

Clip Source: www.sixwise.com

Those Who Read Fiction Better at Reading People

"Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't."

A study published in the Journal of Research in Personality and led by Raymond Mar

found that people who read narrative fiction often have improved social abilities, while for those who read non-fiction, the opposite holds true

"Stories often force us to empathize with characters who are quite different from us, and this ability could help us better understand the many kinds of people we come across in the real world."

People who frequently read narrative fiction scored higher on tests of both empathy

and social acumen

Frequent reading of non-fiction was associated with poorer empathy and social acumen.

Why is Fiction Reading Good for Social Awareness

First

it exposes people to examples of the way people behave socially

Second

readers practice inferring people's intentions and closely watching their relationships

Tags: reading, fiction, socialize